


In These Final Hours

by rowofstars



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, Drinking, F/M, Fluff, Karaoke, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-19 22:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14882774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowofstars/pseuds/rowofstars
Summary: Belle's friends drag her out for drinks and karaoke on one of her last nights in Storybrooke. After a couple of glasses, she gets up the nerve to sing a song about unrequited love, secretly directed at her friend Mr. Gold. Except Mr. Gold is in the audience.





	In These Final Hours

**Author's Note:**

> For the June prompt at a-monthly-rumbelling: drinking, karaoke, dancing, kissing, date. I think I worked them all in in some way. Go me. Also note the blink and you'll miss it Red Warrior. ;) Unbeta’d so there’s probably tons of errors.

“Come on, Belle!” Ruby whined. “You _have_ to come out with us.”

Belle gave her friend a look as Ariel came around to sit on her other side. At the end of the counter, Mr. Gold waited for Granny to ring up his lunch order. He barely spared her a glance as he handed over the money, and she sighed.

“Yeah, Belles,” said Ariel as she twisted back and forth on the stool. “It’s your last weekend in Storybrooke. Monday you’ll be in the _big_ city, and you’ll forget all about us and this little po-dunk town.”

“Oh, I will _not_ ,” Belle said, smiling and shaking her head. “I could never forget either of you!”

“So you’re coming tonight, right?” Ariel asked, tilting her head as her smile widened into a grin.

Ruby slid off her stool and stood between Belle and Ariel, her arms around both women’s shoulders. “There’ll be karaoke...” she said in a sing-song voice.

Belle groaned and tipped her head back, while behind her, Mr. Gold paused with his lunch sack dangling from his left hand.

His other hand squeezed the handle of his cane, twisting it into his palm. He looked back over his shoulder at the women, just as Belle started laughing, and then strode out the door. He hurried across the street, covering the two blocks back to his shop at a fast clip that made his damaged ankle throb. The pain gave him something to focus on temporarily as he tried and failed to put the conversation out of his mind.

The shop door closed hard, rattling the bell and making it clang harshly. Gold ignored his lunch, setting the bag on the counter by the cash register, and moved through the curtain into the back room. He didn't feel hungry anymore. He barely felt anything except an aching pain in his chest that made it hard to catch his breath.

Belle French was leaving Storybrooke.

He pressed his lips together and sagged on the old cot with his head in his hands. She was light and sweetness and beauty, the one person who saw the possibility of good in him and made him want to be better. She was the love of his life, and he was already bereft at even the thought of never seeing her again.

Of course, he had never told her. He was far too much of a coward for that, and she was far too good for the likes of him. It would have ruined their friendship, and ended the soft, quiet moments he so enjoyed. He love it when she came into his shop and wandered around, asking him about this object or that book, or when she sat down with him for tea, sipped out of vintage china. He lived for their impromptu lunches when they both happened to be at Granny’s, and the evening walks when they were both leaving work at the same time. 

She was leaving, and the library would no longer be one of his favorite places, a refuge from the town that looked at him with disdain. Every day he would look across the street and remember the fleeting hours when Belle French was his.

 

 

* * *

 

Belle French was drunk.

Maybe not falling down, slurred speech, throwing up in the bar bathroom drunk, but drunk enough that karaoke became a thing she was actually willing to do. She should have stopped at two drinks. She was always a two drink limit girl, but it was her next-to-last day in Storybrooke, and while Ruby and Ariel were wonderful friends, they were _terrible_ influences.

She stared out at the crowded bar, seeing only vague figures and shapes in the glare of the lights, and licked her lips. The screen on the karaoke machine gave her a ten second countdown, and she closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about the room full of people, half of whom didn’t care who was singing what on stage, or how her choice of song was probably pretty strange after Ruby and Ariel tag-teamed some Taylor Swift. The only thing she wanted in her mind was the one person who would never hear what she was singing, or the words she wanted to say.

Gold frowned down at his drink as he leaned against the bar. The whiskey was mediocre and on top of that it tasted watered down. He set the glass to the side and tried to look inconspicuous. That was difficult since aside from the third Thursday of every month when he collected rent, he otherwise never set foot in the Rabbit Hole. It wasn’t a dive bar exactly, but it was typical of a small town where most patrons wanted nothing more than cheap, domestic beer in a bottle. A few people looked at him strangely, but his usual glower put them off asking any questions about what he was doing there. 

He felt foolish watching Belle and her friends, lurking like some kind of creeper in the shadows. They were having so much fun, laughing and singing, spinning each other around in haphazard dances. He’d never really known that kind of freedom, the kind that let him stop caring what others thought and embrace the moment. Except once after getting caught in a light spring shower turned pelting rain, when he’d pulled Belle into the shop to escape the storm. She’d held onto his hand and twirled around and around, her blue eyes sparkling. On impulse he'd waltzed her around the floor, a bit slow and crooked with his ankle, but carefully avoiding knocking the antiques with their elbows. She'd looked up at him, eyes wide and lips parted, mouth begging to be kissed, but the moment passed as soon as it began, and he knew he must have imagined it.

The alcohol burned his throat as he tossed back the last of the awful whiskey, wincing as he swallowed. He was about to leave, when he saw Ruby coaxing Belle up on stage. After a minute or two, the music started and he drew himself back into the darkness.

The song had a lower pitch which made it easy for Belle to hit most of the notes, but she could feel her voice nearly crack as she came to the end of the first verse. She closed her eyes again and tried to put it out of her mind, to do nothing except feel the words and the song and the ache in her heart. When she opened them she almost dropped the microphone.

Gold was standing at the back of the bar.

It was absurd. He never came to the Rabbit Hole, never seemed like the type, but there he was, gazing back at her with a slight smile. The first part of the chorus started and everything seemed to fade around her, as though it was just the two of them. Then she blinked, and suddenly he wasn’t there anymore. Her eyes scanned the room, but the lights were too bright to see the crowd clearly. Most weren’t even looking at the stage or paying her any mind at all. 

A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she thought about all the times she'd tried to get her feelings out, tried to see if he felt the same way, only to come to the stark realization that he didn’t. Every one of her subtle advances had been deflected or ignored, and she wasn’t brave enough to make an idiot of herself with followers and balloons and a banner exclaiming her devotion.

He didn’t love her, and that had to be okay.

The song continued, but Belle couldn’t anymore. She set the microphone down and stepped down off the stage, wobbling a bit on in her heels. Ruby came towards her, but she brushed off the contact and marched straight back to their table where she snatched up her purse. She could feel all the eyes in the room on her and it made hers burn as she blinked away more tears. 

“Belle, where are you going?” Ruby called out. “And what was with that song?”

Ariel started to follow after Belle, but Ruby caught her by the arm and held her back. “It’s only nine, you can’t leave yet!” Ariel said.

Belle stopped and turned, shaking her head, more at herself and her foolishness than anything else. “I have to go. I’m sorry, I - ” She swiped at her cheeks and gave Ruby a sad, half smile. “I’m sorry.” 

Before she stepped through the door of the bar, her eyes jumped to the corner where she thought Gold had been standing. It was still empty. 

Perhaps, she thought, he’d never really been there at all.

 

 

* * *

 

The streets of Storybrooke were empty, save for a few people standing outside the Rabbit Hole, smoking.

Belle kept her head down and her arms wrapped around herself as she walked. The click of her heels seemed abnormally loud and the street lights reminded her too much of the lights on the stage. She made her way passed the library, and then another three blocks to the street where her small little house was. A little further down was Gold's big Victorian, and she felt a pang for all the moments they had on this very street, saying goodbye to each other before she went inside. She reached in her purse for her keys as she made her way up the front steps, but her fingers fumbled with them and they dropped to the pavement with a metallic clank.

She bent to pick them up, but another hand reached for them first. Startled, she straightened and stepped back, meeting a pair of warm, whiskey brown eyes.

“Adam...” she said, breathless with surprise.

Gold smiled softly, unable to contain the joy he always felt at seeing her. “Belle.”

“I, um,” she stopped and took her keys from his outstretched hand. “I didn’t, uh, expect to see you.”

_Tonight. Here. Ever again._

He wasn’t sure which she meant, but he nodded anyway, hands folded on the handle of his cane. “I heard you sing.”

“Oh...” She swallowed. “I - I thought you were there, but...”

“I suppose I was trying not to be seen,” he admitted, giving her a crooked smile.

She smiled back, and swiped at her face again, hoping the low light hid her reddened eyes and streaked makeup.

Silence loomed for a long moment, and Gold felt his nerves stretching thin. “So, you’re leaving.”

She looked away, her eyes naturally going across the street to his shop. “Yeah, uh, it happened kinda fast. I just...I needed a change, you know?”

He nodded again. He didn’t know at all, but whatever made her happy was what he wanted for her. They were quiet again and he squeeze his cane, twisting the end against the pavement. He thought he knew what the song meant, the lyrics about knowing or thinking the other person didn’t love you, didn’t feel the way you did about them, and how moving on was the only option. The words were true. You couldn’t make someone love you, but if they already did and you didn’t know it...

“Well, I should get home,” she said finally, moving to her front door of her little green house. Everything was packed into boxes, but it was still home for the next two days.

Gold’s frustration boiled over and he spun on his heel, his voice louder than he intended for an empty residential street. “Did you mean it?”

Belle paused with her hand on the door, her key sticking out of the lock. “Mean what?” she asked, not looking at him.

“The song,” he clarified, closing the distance between them. “Did you mean it?”

His voice was quieter now, and she could feel him just behind her, could hear her mother’s voice too, as clear as the day she died. _Do the brave thing._

“Yes.”

He swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut. “Belle...”

She turned, slowly. “Adam, do you...?”

His eyes opened and he reached for her, touching his fingertips to her cheek and grazing them down along her jaw. “Oh, Belle. How could you think I didn’t?”

Her lip trembled as she grabbed for his tie, trying to pull him closer. He moved at the same time, his fingers sliding into her hair to tilt her face up for his kiss. Her arms circled his waist, slipping into his suit jacket as his lips captured hers. A second or two later she was against the door, the wood cold and solid on her back while he was warm and soft at her front. The kiss was rough and messy, weeks and months and years of desire pouring out of them through the insistent press of tongues and the urgent grasping of fingers.

Belle let herself sink back against the door, and shifted one of her hands to get a fistful of his hair. He’d cut it a few months back, from shoulder length to a short crop that showed off how silver it had become in the last year. Though she was disappointed she hadn't gotten her hands on it when it was longer, it was still just as soft as she’d always imagined.

His lungs were burning when he finally broke the kiss, trailing his mouth to her ear and down her neck before he wrapped her in his arms and held her close. “Belle,” he breathed. “Please don’t leave.”

She squeezed him to her and smiled as he pressed a kiss to her neck through her hair. “Never.”

Gold pulled away, his eyes shining with emotion, and waited while she unlocked the door. She held it open for him, and he gave her a shy smile, nervous about what might come next. The deadbolt locked with a sharp click, and she turned, holding out her hand for him to take. He wrapped his warm fingers around hers and let her lead him up the stairs to her bedroom.

The words still hadn’t been said out loud, but they both knew they would be soon.

 

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, back at the Rabbit Hole, Ariel was very excitedly trying to tell Ruby what she’d witnessed on the street outside the library. She’d gone after Belle, knowing her friend was deeply upset, but turned back when she saw Mr. Gold. He'd followed Belle down the street, walking with a determination Ariel had only ever seen when he was hunting down missing rent, and she smiled, sensing that the song might have finally pushed the two idiots to act. However, Ruby was not paying her the least bit of mind, her attention entirely focused on the girl on stage belting out a Hayley Kiyoko song.

Ariel was saying something about Belle and Gold, but that was old news as far as she was concerned. If those two finally worked out their issues and got together, great. It meant her best friend might stay in town after all.

“What’s her name?” Ruby asked, shouting over the music.

Ariel shook her head. “Who?’

Ruby gave her a look and pointed to the stage.

“Oh!” Ariel exclaimed, smiling knowingly. “That’s _Mulan..._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you're wondering, the song Belle sings is ["I Can't Make You Love Me" the Bonnie Raitt version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9Cu6GYqxo) (because that's the only version for me).


End file.
